Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
We should not underestimate the scale of potential disaster SA has narrowly averted
THE presidential proclamation, issued exactly a year ago, made clear the ambitious intentions. A full judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, headed by the deputy chief justice of the Republic.
The first weeks dealt mainly with the machinations of the Gupta-clan cronies of our “recalled” former president, Jacob Zuma.
Although we are as yet a long way from any formal finding by Judge Raymond Zondo’s commission, the testimony by Cabinet ministers, civil servants and business people, has pretty much borne out the analysis by the media of tens of thousands of leaked email correspondents, which originally uncovered the plot.
The evidence was of a brazenly audacious strategy. A tight, politically connected cabal attempted to capture control of every important public sector entity, as well as to subvert the constitutionally laid-down processes of executive government, all to serve the pecuniary benefit of the conspirators.
If this is the gist of the commission’s eventual findings, we should not underestimate the scale of the potential disaster that South Africa has narrowly averted – averted only because of the indefatigable efforts of a small band of journalists and the courageous integrity of a few public servants and government ministers.
This was arguably the most blatant attempt ever known, by commercial interests to seize control of the democratic government of a large country.
If such actions had been carried out for ideological reasons, rather than just avarice, we would call it out for what it is – treason. Unfortunately, we seem to be more forgiving of a slow coup motivated by monetary greed than we would be of a swift one motivated by political beliefs.
The testimony that started before Zondo last week of Angelo Agrizzi, the former chief operating officer of the facilities management and security company Bosasa, marks a distinct change in tenor. Although the evidence spotlights yet another business family, that of one of the Watson brothers, the testimony is very different from that which was presented regarding the Guptas.
It is less of the grand strategy of state capture and more of the tawdry mechanics of corruption.
The Guptas are Johnny-comelatelies, international business predators who had already been implicated in shady operations in their home country of India.
They sensed fresh and easy prey on the SA veld and swooped in, literally, to commandeer Waterkloof airbase as the first staging post of their pillage.
The four Watson brothers, in comparison, are local yokels and seemingly content with narrower horizons than the Guptas. Prominent political activists hailing from the Eastern Cape, they quickly parlayed their Struggle credentials into empowerment-related business contracts, with two of them involved in the murky mining interests of Brett Kebble, and a third, Cheeky, charged in connection with a R200m public transport system fraud. Youngest brother, Gavin, became the CEO of Bosasa and its subsidiaries.
The Guptas, on the face of it, wanted to run the entire ship of state, after successfully suborning its captain. Gavin Watson, on the face of it, couldn’t care a toss whose hand was on the tiller, as long as his company was assured of a steady cash flow.
The evidence given by Aggrizi is as yet untested. He claims that Bosasa budgeted around R6m a month in pay-offs, including – according to the testimony so far – to three National Prosecuting Authority staff, to three former Correctional Services commissioners and their chief financial officer, to ANC parliamentarians, and to top civil servants.
This was corruption at an industrial scale, executed with managerial efficiency. It was, explained Aggrizi, better to lease the souls they corrupted on a monthly instalment, rather than paying lump sums.
Cabinet minister Nomvula Mokonyane supposedly was on a R50 000-amonth retainer.
Aggrizi says Mokonyane’s annual “Christmas goodies” list was: four cases of spirits, an assortment of premium-brand brandies and other high-end spirits, 40 mixed cases of beer, eight lambs, 200kg of beef and 12 cases of frozen chicken.
Philosopher Hannah Arendt, describing the terrifying normality of those who operated the Nazi death machine, famously wrote of the banality of evil. Aggrizi’s testimony about the ANC corruption machine describes the banality of greed.